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Not Your Momma's Cookbooks (Part 2)

For someone who doesn't like to cook (and who rarely cooks), I sure own a lot of cookbooks; I love seeing all the different foods that can be made. In my ventures through the cookbook aisles, I've noticed some with less-than-typical main ingredients, cooking methods, and themes. This weekend, I'm sharing with you a sampling of the most unusual—in one way or another—cookbooks out there.

Tonight: special themes and science-y goodness

Special Themes

Harry Potter
More than 150 foods mentioned in the Harry Potter books are included in The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook, from Treacle Tart and Pumpkin Pasties to "Hagrid's Bath Buns." (I've never read the books—gasp!—so I'm hoping that last one isn't as gross as it sounds.)

Vampires
"The Complete Vampire Lover's Cookbook," Love at First Bite, includes 300 "suckulent" recipes from Blood Orange Mimosas to Coffin Cake. Real vampires will be disappointed to discover that none of the recipes call for real blood. (If you're looking for a little more oomph, try to track down a copy of The Dracula Cookbook of Blood, which features blood-filled recipes from around the world.)

Grossing Out Your Guests
There's a variety of cookbooks with the aim of creating edible concoctions that resemble gross things, but Gross-Out Cakes takes the, um, cake with its recipe for "Kitty Litter Cake."

Star Trek
In the official Star Trek Cookbook, "Neelix," the chef of the U.S.S. Voyager, guides readers through the preparation of intergalactic delights featured in all the Star Trek series and movies.

Star WarsThe Star Wars Cookbook: Wookiee Cookies and Other Galactic Recipes went over so well that they published a second official cookbook, The Star Wars Cookbook II: Darth Malt and More Galactic Recipes. Both feature recipes that are Star Wars-shaped or inspired, rather than foods found in the movies.

Astronauts' Food
Written by NASA's former "director of space foods" and an astronaut trainer, The Astronaut's Cookbook provides home chefs with recipes for food usually eaten quite far from home. Sadly, the directions stop at the point of "ready to eat," and don't instruct on the freezing and dehydrating process, but the tidbits of space food history more than make up for the "ordinary" appearance of the food.

Last Meals
Two cookbooks feature recipes for "last meals"—what someone would eat if it were to be their last meal ever. My Last Supper includes the recipes for 50 famed chefs' "final" meals, alongside interviews and portraits (the nearly-nude of Anthony Bourdain, who wrote the foreword, being perhaps the most notable). Last Suppers features last meal recipes for an assortment of celebrities, organized by their fields (music, politics, sports, etc.).

Cooking for Sex
Perhaps due to the belief that cooking for or with someone is an intimate act, there are a fair number of cookbooks with recipes intended to lead to pleasure in bed. On one end of the spectrum are tomes like The New InterCourses, full of recipes featuring aphrodisiacs and photos of artfully semi-nude women, while the other end of the spectrum holds Cook to Bang, a "misogynistic," "off-putting," and chauvinistic (according to Publishers Weekly) cookbook designed to help men "cook an amazing meal and bring out their date's inner slut."

Science-y

Edible Experiments
Most cookbooks of "edible science experiments" include basic kid-oriented projects, such as homemade play dough and "Why does popcorn pop?" The Hungry Scientist Handbook is geared toward older home scientists, with recipes for alcoholic drinks and a caramel bikini. (There are still some cool but kid-friendly projects, like an LED lollipop.)

The Science Behind Food
Both Cooking for Geeks and Ideas in Food focus on the chemistry and biology in cooking. The former promises "Real Science, Great Hacks, and Good Food," while the latter offers "Great Recipes and Why They Work," including a Grilled Potato Ice Cream.

Come back tomorrow evening for part three, featuring cookbooks with unique layouts and design. And if you haven't read part one yet, with strange ingredients, unusual cooking methods, and unlikely author-chefs, check it out now.

Also on Mental Floss:

DID YOU KNOW? Marlon Brando hated memorizing lines so much that he posted cue cards everywhere to help him get through scenes.
He even asked for lines to be written on an actress's posterior. (That request was denied.)